


Coffee.

by heyitsnxel



Series: 30 Trope Prompts. [15]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 17:08:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14938409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyitsnxel/pseuds/heyitsnxel
Summary: Every morning there was a coffee on Phil's desk. Who kept putting it there? He was about to find out.





	Coffee.

**Author's Note:**

> day 15: office romance.

Every morning, there was a coffee on Phil’s desk.

 

Some days it was in one of the white ceramic office mugs from the breakroom. Steam rising from the top, a napkin sat underneath. Other times, it was in a to-go Starbucks, leaving the scent of caramel to linger around the room all day. It was always exactly the way Phil liked it and never once had it been cold.

 

But, every morning, it never failed to surprise Phil to see it there.

 

Getting his coffee had never been something he’d asked any of his employees to do. Some did it anyway, poking their head in his door with a ‘Want a coffee, Mr. Lester?’ on their way to the break room and some never once had offered. Phil thought that was their prerogative. He was a grown man, perfectly capable of walking down the hall and pouring his own cup.

Yet, every morning, the coffee was there. It seemed foolish that Phil didn’t know who was doing it. Whoever it was always seemed to be one step ahead of him. Always out of his office before he got in. Always just out of reach.

But today was different. When Phil walked into his office, jacket slung over his arm and hair a mess from the wind outside, there was no coffee on his desk. The place where the mug usually sat was empty. He could feel the frown forming on his face, not out of disappointment necessarily but out of confusion. It had become such a regular thing, why did they stop? Phil briefly entertained the idea of them getting fired, before he realized that _he_ would have had to be the one to let them go. His brain pre-coffee wasn’t always the brightest.

 

For the first morning in a while, Phil found himself in the break room. A white mug sat on the counter as he stared at the coffee pot, waiting for the first drips of the drink to start brewing. A group of his employees were sat around the table; Some had coffees, others had breakfast, some were simply in here because everyone else was.

 

They’d greeted Phil with their usual goodmorning before drifting back into their chatter.

 

_‘Did you hear Lisa is pregnant?’ ‘Oh my gosh! How’d you find out?’ ‘I’m going to bring brownies tomorrow. I have to make them for some school thing for my kid.’_

 

It was all mindless, pre-work chatter. Phil was barely paying it any mind until one of the women spoke up.

 

“Hey, where’s Dan?”

 

A few people shrugged before Alexis, the woman who had been in charge of all the scheduling ever since it became apparent Phil couldn’t do it, spoke up.

 

“Called in sick this morning. Poor thing sounded like he was on his deathbed.”

 

The group fell back into a quiet chatter before Phil interjected.

 

“Something’s going around.” He lied – who knows, maybe something was. “Did anyone else call out today?”

 

Alexis shook her head, quickly telling Phil that it was just Dan, before dissolving back into another conversation.

 

Dan.

 

He and Phil had talked many times before – his desk was the closest to Phil’s office, so they saw each other in passing quite often. Phil sometimes watched him talking to his coworkers through the glass that separated them, waiting for him to smile and his dimple make an appearance. Phil loved dimples.

 

But, Dan had never missed a day of work for anything. He had been sent home for being sick once, but this was the first time he’d called out. This was also the first day the coffee hadn’t been on Phil’s desk. Everything clicked together like a perfectly made puzzle.

 

Of course it was Dan.

 

He was always earlier than everyone else. He had told Phil one morning about how stupid he thought the bus system was. It ‘came too late and left too early’ for him to be at the office at a reasonable time. So naturally, instead of being later everyday, Dan was there early – playing on his phone in the break room until it was time for the day to start. Phil had caught him countless times staring into his office, only to glance away immediately when Phil saw him. He’d thought nothing of it considering he was doing the same to him through the window. How could he have been so blind?

 

A smile spread across his face as he sipped at the coffee. It suddenly wasn’t as good as it had been everyday before.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, a mug of tea sat on Dan’s desk. There was a pink, star shaped sticky note on the side that everyone knew only belonged to Phil.

 

_‘Tea is good for when you’re sick. Hope you feel better :)’_

 

To say Dan was surprised was an understatement. He’d managed to beat Phil to work, despite his cold, and have the coffee on his desk before he even walked through the front door. Yet somehow, between now and then, Phil had managed to do the same in return.

 

Dan knew the gig was up when he didn’t show up the day before. Phil was a smart man. He would definitely put two and two together. No coffee, no Dan. Which _clearly_ meant the coffee had been coming from Dan the whole time.

 

He’d braced himself for embarrassment, even a subtle rejection. But he hadn’t been expecting him to return the favor.

 

Dan plucked the note off the side of the cup and placed it in his drawer. When he looked into Phil’s office, he was already looking away.

 

* * *

 

This started an all-out war between the two. Everyone in the office had already noticed Dan putting the coffees on Phil’s desk far before Phil had figured it out. They’d relentlessly teased Dan about his crush for months, much to his displeasure. But, none of them had expected Phil to catch on OR start doing the same in return. They especially hadn’t expected him to continue doing it well after Dan’s cold had gone away.

 

It had become a sort of game amongst the employees. Who would come in to work first? Who would be the first person to catch the other in the act? What was going to come of it in the end?

 

It turned out Phil was the first one to catch Dan doing it. The mug had barely been placed on his desk when he burst into the room with a loud “Aha!” that made Dan jump, nearly spilling the coffee everywhere.

“Phil! – Er, Mr. Lester… ” Dan laughed, his shoulders slumping in defeat. Glancing out towards his desk, he saw a Starbuck’s cup placed in the center. “How did you manage to get to Starbuck’s and back before I could even set the mug down?”

 

Phil chuckled at Dan’s defeated groan, smirking with no more than a shrug of his shoulders.

“That’s my secret, Daniel.” His expression shifted to a nervous one. Phil had never been great at hiding what he was feeling. “Would you like to actually get coffee? I mean, we’ve basically been doing it every day in a weird, round-a-bout way that makes no sense. But, yeah.”

 

“Is that allowed?” Dan cocked his eyebrow, arms folding across his chest. Phil resisted the urge to straighten his tie that had shifted as he moved.

 

“Erm. I actually don’t remember if I made a rule about that or not.”

 

This answer seemed to be enough. Dan laughed, rolling his eyes. If he cared at all about what the rules may or may not be, he surely wasn’t showing it and Phil honestly didn’t mind.

 

“Of course you don’t remember. Let’s go with you didn’t, because I’d love to get coffee with you.”

 

Dan left the office with a wink, the door falling shut behind him. Phil watched him sit down at his desk, tipping the rolly chair back in a way that made Phil’s heart have palpitations, before he tipped the Starbuck’s cup towards Phil’s office.

 

* * *

 

 

_Email_

_11:42 AM_

_Phil Lester  
   - to: Daniel Howell_

 

 _Subject: Important!_  
  


Dan –

I forgot to ask, does this mean I’m not going to get my coffee every morning from here on out?

 

 

_Email_

_11:45 AM_

_Daniel Howell  
   - to: Phil Lester _

 

_Subject: Re: Important!_

 

Mr. Lester –

Does this mean I’m not going to get **_mine_**? I was starting to get used to it.

 

* * *

 

Their date went well. _Too well._

 

And, so did their second, and their third, and everyone after that.

 

 

 

Apparently Phil of the past had decided that office romances weren't allowed, putting it right in the first few pages of the work rules. There was nothing he wanted more than to go back in time and talk himself out of it. Dan had found the whole situation 'ironically funny' and started looking for another job the next day.

And when he found one? He _insisted_ that he wasn't leaving because of Phil. To no one's surprise, that didn't stop the entirety of the office from picking on him about it until his last day. 

 

Phil, of course, had been sulking. The whole situation was bittersweet. He and Dan were free to do as they please without the threat of corporate looming over them, but now he was going to look out of his office to an empty desk - or worse, a desk with a new person. His random daily conversations with Dan would be over text now instead of face to face.  

 

With a sigh, Phil pushed open his office door and braced himself for the first day without Dan being within walking distance. To his surprise, a coffee sat on the middle of his desk, sticky note on the side:

 

_'I'm not even there & I know you're sulking. Stop that. See you @ 5. - D'_


End file.
